Spoken language in children with Down syndrome and in children in a normative group was compared. Growth trends, individual variation, sex differences, and performance on vocabulary, pragmatic, and grammar scales as well as MaxLU (maximum length of utterance) were explored. Subjects were 330 children with Down syndrome (age range: 1-5 years) and 336 children in a normative group (1;4-2; 4 years;months). The Swedish Early Communicative Development inventory-words and sentences (SECDI-w&s) was employed. Performance of children with Down syndrome at ages 3;0 and 4;0 was comparable with that of children in the normative group at ages 1,4 and 1;8 respectively. In comparison with children in the normative group of similar vocabulary size, children with Down syndrome lagged slightly on pragmatic and grammar scales. The early development proceeded in most cases with exponential or logistic growth. This stresses the great potential of early intervention.

4. Berglund, Eva

et al.

Eriksson, Mårten

University of Gävle, Department of Education and Psychology, Ämnesavdelningen för psykologi.

To describe the development of words and sentences in Swedish children 16-28 months old, 900 parental reports on 336 children were analyzed. Subjects were randomly selected from the national birth register, and there was a response rate of 88%. The assessments were made using the Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory-words and sentences (SECDI-w&s).

Age-based norms for productive vocabulary, pragmatic skills, grammar skills, and maximum length of utterance (MaxLU) were determined. We describe the development of feedback morphemes, semantic categories, and single words and tasks. Correlation across measures was significant, and especially strong between vocabulary size and grammar skills. Optimized positive predictive values were high for 25 to 28 month predictions (71%-88%), and vocabulary scores were found to be of particular predictive importance. No significant gender differences were detected. The clinical relevance of the instrument is discussed.

Approximately 14% of the working-age Swedish population are either on long-term sick leave or early retirement due to disability. Substantial increase of sick listing,reports of work disabilities and early retirement due to stress and musculoskeletal

chronic pain suggest a need for methods of preventing loss of function resulting from these conditions. The present preliminary investigation examined the effects of a brief Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention for the treatment of public health sector workers who showed chronic stress/pain and were at risk for high sick leave utilization. ACT was compared in an additive treatment design with medical treatment as usual (MTAU). A group of 19 participants were randomly distributed

into 2 groups. Both conditions received MTAU. The ACT condition receivedfour 1-hour weekly sessions of ACT in addition to MTAU. At post and 6-month followup, ACT participants showed fewer sick days and used fewer medical treatment resources

than those in the MTAU condition. No significant differences were found inlevels of pain, stress, or quality of life. Improvements in sick leave and medical utilization could not be accounted for by remission of stress and pain in the ACT group

as no between-group differences were found for stress or pain symptoms.

Four urban public spaces, representing various designs and microclimates, were investigated in Gothenburg, Sweden, in order to estimate how weather and microclimate affect people in urban outdoor environments. The research strategy was both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary and included scientists from three disciplines: architecture, climatology and psychology. The project is based on common case studies carried out during four seasons, including measurements of meteorological variables, interviews and observations of human activity at each place. Multiple regression analysis of meteorological and behavioural data showed that air temperature, wind speed and clearness index (cloud cover) have a significant influence on people's assessments of the weather, place perceptions and place-related attendance. The results support the arguments in favour of employing climate sensitive planning in future urban design and planning projects, as the physical component of a place can be designed to influence the site-specific microclimate and consequently people's place-related attendance, perceptions and emotions.

Competing models of declarative memory were tested with structural equation models to analyze whether a second-order latent variable structure for episodic and semantic memory was invariant across age groups and across noise exposure conditions. Data were taken from three previous experimental noise studies that were performed with the same design, procedure, and dependent measures, and with participants from four age groups (13-14, 18-20, 35-45, and 55-65 years). Two noise conditions, road traffic noise and meaningful irrelevant speech, were compared to a quiet control group. The structural models put to the test were taken from Nyberg et al. (2003), which employed several memory tests that were the same as ours and studied age-groups that partly overlapped with our groups. In addition we also varied noise exposure conditions. Our analyses replicated and supported the second-order semantic-episodic memory models in Nyberg et al. (2003). The latent variable structures were invariant across age groups, with the exception of our youngest group, which by itself showed a less clear latent structure. The obtained structures were also invariant across noise exposure conditions. We also noted that our text memory items, which did not have a counterpart in the study by Nyberg et al. (2003), tend to form a separate latent variable loading on episodic memory.

The study explores the criterion-related validity of the Swedish version of the Communicative Development Inventories-Word & Sentences (SECDI-W&S). In two follow-up procedures. SECDI-W&S was used to assess vocabulary and grammar skills in 32 children at ages 1;10 or 2;4. At the first follow-up. 14 months later (at ages 3:0 or 3;6). two grammar tasks from the SECDI-W&S and one narrative task (frog story) were given to 27 children. Predictive validity ranged from .50 to .60 for most assessed skills over the 14-month period, whereas concurrent validity scores at ages 3;0 or 3:6 ranged from .48 to .70. The second follow-up at 26 months (at ages 1;0 or 4;6) was conducted with the narrative task only. predictive validity from ages 1:10 or 2:3 for the second follow-up remained high for some of the measures: however, for other measures it diminished, which could be partly accounted for by ceiling effects, The overall results confirm that the criterion-related validity of the SECDI is sound.

This study describes the typical course and variability in major areas of communicative development for 228 Swedish-speaking children between 8 and 16 months of age. The assessments were made by parental reports with the Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventories (SECDI) using a semi-longitudinal design. Age-based norms for understanding of phrases, vocabulary comprehension, vocabulary production and use of gestures are described at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentile levels. More lexical verbs were found among the first words in comprehension than in production. An extensive variability within individuals in onset and development was found for the assessed skills. The individual differences proved to be stable over 4–6 months. No gender differences were found for comprehension of phrases, total gestures, vocabulary compre-hension, or for vocabulary production. Strong, unique associations were found between total gestures and vocabulary comprehension and between vocabulary comprehension and vocabulary production. In contrast, no unique association was found between gestures and vocabulary production. The results generally concur with those reported for English-speaking American children by Fenson et al. (1993, 1994).

An instrument designed to assess young children's communicative skills at 18 months is described. The instrument consists of a 103-item parental report checklist based on the Swedish version of the Communicative Development Inventories (SECDI). We present descriptive data from a study at the Swedish Community Health Care Centres, including parental reports of 1021 18-month-old children. The response rate was 88%. Performance at the 10th percentile consisted of 8 communicative gestures, 45 comprehended words, and 7 spoken words. The overall results indicate that the instrument is reliable and has validity approximating that of the SECDI. Furthermore, parents of the children with the poorest vocabulary indicated approval of the assessment procedure in interviews especially directed to this group.

In a visual search study by Öhman, Flykt, and Esteves (2001) shorter reaction times (RTs) were shown to snake and spider targets than to flower and mushroom targets. The current study investigated if preparation for action to potential threats could explain this difference. In this study two main changes were made to the paradigm. All possible combinations of target and distractors were used to disentangle the effects of targets and distractors, and the responses had to be withheld until after detection. The results suggest that the shorter RTs to snakes and spiders than flowers and mushrooms were due to preparation for faster action to potential threats than to non-threats.

24.

Flykt, Anders

University of Gävle, Department of Education and Psychology, Ämnesavdelningen för psykologi.

Twenty-four participants were given a visual search task of deciding whether all the pictures in 3 x 3 search arrays contained a target picture from a deviant category, and heart rate was measured. The categories were snakes, spiders, flowers, and mushrooms. Shorter reaction times (RTs) were observed for fear-relevant (snake and spider) targets rather than for fear-irrelevant/neutral (flower and mushroom)targets. This difference was most pronounced for the participants presented with a gray-scale version of the search arrays. The 1st interbeat interval (IBI), after the search array onset, showed an effect of the target, whereas the 2nd IBI also showed an effect of the distractors. The results suggest that controlled processing of the task operates together with automatic processing.

The dynamics of resource allocation to pictures of spiders and other animals in spider-fearful participants was investigated. The task of the participants was to respond rapidly and accurately to various probe stimuli superimposed on pictures of different animals. These were arguably fear relevant (spiders, snakes, and wolves) and fear irrelevant (beetles, turtles, and rabbits). The probes were shown with different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) from picture onset to address the dynamics of resource allocation. A larger allocation of resources to spider pictures than to pictures of all other animals, with no difference between the latter regarding resource allocation was found. For the task that demanded more resources the fearrelated physiological responses decreased, suggesting that controlled processing modulates fear responses.

The occurrence and timing of emotion-antecedent appraisal checks are difficult to assess. We report an attempt to estimate the time window of the intrinsic pleasantness check using a dual-task probe paradigm. In three experiments, participants viewed negative and positive pictures. Their other task was speeded responding on a probe superimposed on the pictures with different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Longer probe-reaction times were observed for negative than positive pictures. This effect appeared at SOA 300 or 350 ms, suggesting that the intrinsic pleasantness appraisal check yields a differential behavioral outcome around 300 ms after stimulus onset, and seems to continue unless attention to picture content is inhibited. This paradigm might be successfully used for the mental chronography of appraisal processes.

Knez (1995a) reported two experiments on the indirect, non-visual, psychological effects of the office lighting which varied correlated colour temperature (CCT), colour rendering index (CRI), illuminance and gender ?in a factorial, between-subject, experimental design (Kirk, 1968). The separate analyses of these experiments did not, however, enable a conclusive interpretation of the CRI parameter?s impact on subjects? emotional state. As a follow-up analysis, the present paper synthesised statistically the experiments reported in Knez (1995a) into one experiment. This revealed several new results, showing a combined impact of the CCT, CRI and illuminance parameters on females? and males? positive and negative mood.

30.

Knez, Igor

University of Gävle, Department of Education and Psychology, Ämnesavdelningen för psykologi.

As a means of extending the significance of findings in experimental psychology and nonvisual psychological lighting research to digital game research, the present study was designed to investigate the impact of warm (reddish) and cool (bluish) simulated illumination in digital game worlds on game users' affect and play performance. In line with some previous findings, we predicted that lighting in a digital game world might, as in the real world, differently influence the nonvisual psychological mechanisms of affect, which in turn might enhance or impair the players' performance. It was shown that the players performed best and fastest in a game world lit with a warm (reddish) as compared to a cool (bluish) lighting. The former color of lighting also induced the highest level of pleasantness in game users. A regression analysis indicated tentatively that it was the level of pleasantness induced by the warm lighting that enhanced the players' better performance in that digital game world. It was also shown that high- as opposed to medium- or low-skilled players engage almost 2.5 times more per week in game playing. Given their skill, they performed significantly faster and felt significantly calmer and more relaxed in doing so.

The main objective of the present study was to examine the influence of culture (Sweden vs. Japan) and environmental attitude (urban vs. open-air person) on participants' thermal, emotional and perceptual assessments of a park, within the physiological equivalent temperature (PET) comfortable interval of 18-23 degrees C. It was predicted that persons sharing different cultures and environmental attitudes might psychologically differently evaluate a Swedish and a Japanese park despite similar thermal conditions. Consistent with this prediction, Japanese were shown to evaluate the weather as warmer and less good for out-door activity than did Swedes, although and according to the PET index participants in both cultures experienced similar comfortable thermal conditions. Japanese were also shown to evaluate the park as more pleasant and warmer place than did Swedes. However, the Japanese felt emotionally less pleasant at the site than did Swedes. An interaction between culture and environmental attitude indicated tentatively a difference in environmental attitude (urban vs. open-air person) between the two countries as regards the place-related wind sensitivity. All these findings are discussed in terms of culture and environmental attitude suggesting that thermal, emotional and perceptual assessments of a physical place may be intertwined with psychological and cultural processes, rather than fixed by general thermal indices developed in line with the physiological heat balance models. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The general aim has been to illuminate the psychological mechanisms involved in outdoor place and weather assessment. This reasoning was conceptualized in a model, tentatively proposing direct and indirect links of influence in an outdoor place-human relationship. The model was subsequently tested by an empirical study, performed in a Nordic city, on the impact of weather and personal factors on participants' perceptual and emotional estimations of outdoor urban places. In line with our predictions, we report significant influences of weather parameters (air temperature, wind, and cloudlessness) and personal factors (environmental attitude and age) on participants' perceptual and emotional estimations of outdoor urban places. All this is a modest, yet significant, step towards an understanding of the psychology of outdoor place and weather assessment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate which one of three facial regions and which one of three age categories that is estimated with highest accuracy in age estimation of male faces. The study also aimed at comparing the accuracy for the different facial regions with the accuracy for whole faces. A total of 154 participants took part in an experiment in which they estimated the age of pictures of male faces. The pictures were divided into three different age categories (15-24, 35-44, 55-64) and were each shown in their whole as well as in three vertically divided regions (eye and eyebrows, nose, and mouth and chin). Of the different facial regions, the accuracy in the age estimation was highest for the eye region (mean deviation from biological age = 6.50 years). The youngest age category was estimated most accurately (m = 4.21), and the oldest age category was estimated least accurately (m = 9.03). The deviation from biological age in the age estimations was in all 1.19 times larger for the eye region than for the whole faces. The deviation was 1.37 and 1.38 times larger for the nose- and mouth region respectively than for the whole faces.

Not all members of a category are equally good members; for example, a robin is generally considered to be a more typical member of the category ‘birds’ than an ostrich. Similarly, one vocal expression of, for example, happiness can be more typical than another expression of the same emotion, though both expressions clearly are perceived as ‘happy’. This chapter presents ongoing studies investigating the determinants of the typicality (graded structure) of vocal emotion expressions. In two experiments, separate groups of judges rated expressive speech stimuli (both acted and spontaneous expressions) with regard to typicality, ideal (suitability to express the respective emotion), and frequency of instantiation. A measure of similarity to central tendency was also obtained from listener judgments. Partial correlations and multiple regression analyses revealed that similarity to ideal, and not frequency of instantiation or similarity to central tendency, explained most variance in judged typicality. In other words, the typicality of vocal expressions was mainly determined by their similarity to ideal category members. Because ideals depend on the goals that people have, they can be independent of the particular category members that a person usually encounters. Thus it is argued that these results may indicate that prototypical vocal expressions are best characterized as goal-derived categories, rather than common taxonomic categories. This could explain how prototypical expressions can be acoustically distinct and highly recognizable, while at the same time occur relatively rarely in everyday speech.

44.

Magnusson, Bengt

University of Gävle, Department of Education and Psychology, Ämnesavdelningen för psykologi. University of Gävle, Department of Education and Psychology.

This study examined if social distance, i.e. in- vs. out-group membership, had an effect on moral judgments of acts vs. omissions. 164 participants judged the morality of acts vs. omissions of lethal harm, that affected an in- vs. out-group member of the participant, in order to save five other people. The results showed that acts of lethal, but utilitarian, harm were judged more immoral than omissions of equivalent harm. It was also shown that if the victim was an in- group member of the participant the behavior was judged more immoral than if the victim was an out-group member of the participant. However, the acts and omissions of harm were not judged differently when the victim was an in.- vs. out-group member of the participant, indicating that this kind of social distance might not influence the moral judgment of acts and omissions.

Studies within age estimation have often used still pictures of faces. The purpose of this studywas to investigate if there is a difference in the precision of age estimation between still andmoving pictures of full bodies. It was also investigated if the precision is higher whenestimating males rather than females, if the precision is higher when the estimation is done bya individual with same sex as the one getting estimated, if the age of people over the age offorty is underestimated and if the age of people under the age of forty is overestimated. Thecollection of data was done through a web based platform for surveys, from which one groupwas showed still full body pictures and the other group was showed moving full bodypictures. The results showed no difference in estimation precision between still pictures andmoving pictures or when the estimation was done within the same gender (female-female andmale-male). However the results showed that males are estimated with higher precision thanfemales as well as that the age of people over the age of forty is underestimated and the age ofpeople under the age of forty is overestimated.

The purpose of this study was to identify the networks involved in the regulation of visual accommodation/vergence by contrasting the cortical functions subservient to eye-lens accommodation with those evoked by foveal fixation. Neural activity was assessed in normal volunteers by changes in rCBF measured with PET. Thirteen right-handed subjects participated in three monocular tasks: (i) resting with eyes closed; (ii) sustained foveal fixation upon a LED at 1.2 m (0.83 D); and (iii) accommodating alternately on a near (24 cm, 4.16 D) vs. a far (3.0 m, 0.33 D) LED alternately illuminated in sequential 2 s epochs. The contrast between the conditions of near/far accommodation and of constant foveal fixation revealed activation in cerebellar hemispheres and vermis; middle and inferior temporal cortex (BA 20, 21, 37); striate cortex and associative visual areas (BA 17/18). Comparison of the condition of constant fixation with the condition of resting with closed eyes indicated activation of cerebellar hemispheres and vermis; visual cortices (BA 17/18); a right hemisphere dominant network encompassing prefrontal (BA 6, 9, 47), superior parietal (BA 7), and superior temporal (BA 40) cortices; and bilateral thalamus. The contrast between the conditions of near/far accommodation with closed-eye rest reflected an incremental summation of the activations found in the previous comparisons (i.e. activations associated with constant fixation). Neural circuits activated selectively during the near/far response to blur cues over those during constant visual fixation, occupy posterior structures that include occipital visual regions, cerebellar hemispheres and vermis, and temporal cortex.

For 1 week, healthy human participants (n=7) were devoid of normal vision by exposure to prism lenses that optically rotated their perceived world around the line of sight by 180degrees. Adaptation to such prisms involved sustained and vigorous practice of the ability to redirect the unadapted efferent motor command; because prior to all visually guided movements, the to-be executed efferent command was based on incorrect (prismatically reversed) spatial information. The time course of this sort of adaptation was systematically explored in Cooper-Shepard mental rotation (MR) tests and in naturalistic motor-tasks for the purpose of investigating whether mental rotations of the direction of the intended movement share common aspects with the process of MR. A control group (n=7) intermittently exposed to the distorted spatial organization of the central visual field was studied in parallel. The main results were as follows: (a) the MR reaction times (RTs) day 1 with prisms appeared to be very similar to the normal RTs (day 1, noprisms) with the one exception that subjects now responded within a prism (rotated) frame of spatial reference rather than within the environmentally upright. The visuomotor performance became grossly irregular and dysmetric. (b) The majority of the visuomotor adaptation functions began to level off on the 3rd day. (c) The increases in natural motor proficiency were accompanied by a systematic and noticeable decrease in magnitude of the MR Y-intercept obtained from the linear regression line calculated between each subject's RT and the various stimulus angles. MR slopes were stable through days 1-7 for both the experimental and control group. An increased correlation between rotational stimulus angle and RT suggested that the MR function also became progressively more tightly coupled to the stimulus angles. (d) Postadaptation measures of performance indicated the occurrence of selective and minimal adaptation in the natural motor tasks only. It is suggested that these results reflect an improved attentional (strategic) ability to replace incorrect (error producing) control signals with correct (error reducing) control signals. As a result, perceptual-motor start-up processes directly related to spatial coding and to the planning, initiation and correction of the intended direction of motor-or-mental movement improved while the subprocess ("stage") concerned with transformations of such movements remained unchanged. Visuomotor adaptation to inverting prisms engages, and thereby stimulates, a cortical system also invoked in the preparatory process of MR.